1. Technical Field
This application relates to a method of printing a pictorial image onto the circumferential outer surface of beverage bottles and filling beverage bottles in a bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material in rotary filling machinery and apparatus therefor.
2. Background Information
A beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can possibly comprise a beverage filling machine, which is often a rotary filling machine, with a plurality of beverage filling positions, each beverage filling position having a beverage filling device for filling bottles with liquid beverage filling material. The filling devices may have an apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined volume of liquid beverage filling material into the interior of bottles to a substantially predetermined level of liquid beverage filling material.
Some beverage bottling plants may possibly comprise filling arrangements that receive a liquid beverage material from a toroidal or annular vessel, in which a supply of liquid beverage material is stored under pressure by a gas. The toroidal vessel may also be connected to at least one external reservoir or supply of liquid beverage material by a conduit or supply line. In some circumstances it may even be possible that a beverage bottling plant has two external supply reservoirs, each of which may be configured to store either the same liquid beverage product or different products. These reservoirs could possibly be connected to the toroidal or annular vessel by corresponding supply lines, conduits, or other arrangements. It is also possible that the external supply reservoirs could be in the form of simple storage tanks, or in the form of liquid beverage product mixers.
A wide variety of types of filling elements are used in filling machines in beverage bottling or container filling plants for dispensing a liquid product into bottles, cans or similar containers, including but not limited to filling processes that are carried out under counterpressure for the bottling of carbonated beverages. The apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined flow of liquid beverage filling material further comprises an apparatus that is designed to terminate the filling of the beverage bottles upon the liquid beverage filling material reaching the predetermined level in bottles. There may also be provided a conveyer arrangement that is designed to move bottles, for example, from an inspecting machine to the filling machine.
After a filling process has been completed, the filled beverage bottles are transported or conveyed to a closing machine, which is often a rotary closing machine. A revolving or rotary machine comprises a rotor, which revolves around a central, vertical machine axis. There may further be provided a conveyer arrangement configured to transfer filled bottles from the filling machine to the closing station. A transporting or conveying arrangement can utilize transport star wheels as well as linear conveyors. A closing machine closes bottles by applying a closure, such as a screw-top cap or a bottle cork, to a corresponding bottle mouth. Closed bottles are then usually conveyed to an information adding arrangement, wherein information, such as a product name or a manufacturer's information or logo, is applied to a bottle. A closing station and information adding arrangement may be connected by a corresponding conveyer arrangement. Bottles are then sorted and packaged for shipment out of the plant.
Many beverage bottling plants may also possibly comprise a rinsing arrangement or rinsing station to which new, non-return and/or even return bottles are fed, prior to being filled, by a conveyer arrangement, which can be a linear conveyor or a combination of a linear conveyor and a starwheel. Downstream of the rinsing arrangement or rinsing station, in the direction of travel, rinsed bottles are then transported to the beverage filling machine by a second conveyer arrangement that is formed, for example, by one or more starwheels that introduce bottles into the beverage filling machine.
It is a further possibility that a beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can be controlled by a central control arrangement, which could be, for example, a computerized control system that monitors and controls the operation of the various stations and mechanisms of the beverage bottling plant.
In some beverage bottling plants, an information adding station comprises devices or machines that work in clocked cycles for the direct imprinting of containers, in particular in the form of glass or plastic bottles, for example to apply information and/or advertising so that it is permanent and cannot be detached from the container. The printing is generally done either using a screen-printing process or by pad printing.
There are also methods and devices in which information is applied directly to bottles by digitally controlled ink jet printing or digital printing. Some devices of this type are known under the name “Videojet,” for example. In one method, printed dots are produced continuously, which in the standard case are deflected, while only for the actual printing can individual drops of ink pass through the outlet nozzle, allowing them to reach the surface of the bottle where they produce a printed image. The width of the printed character is thereby equal to the height of the character, so that only lines the width of which is equal to the height of the characters can be printed on the respective container or bottle.
There are also ink jet printers with ink jet print heads, for office use among other things, which during the printing produce a linear impression that comprises individual dots and the height of which equals the height of a letter. During the printing, a relative movement between the print head and the surface, such as a sheet of paper, to be printed is necessary in two axial directions that are perpendicular to each other, and namely by moving the print head in the one direction, for example in the horizontal direction, and by moving the surface to be printed in the other axial direction.
There is also an existing method and a print head with which a plurality of printed dots can be produced in a line very close to one another or at a very small distance from one another, for example at least 150 dots per inch, on a surface to be printed, and specifically by a plurality of individually activated individual ink jets. The active print width of this print head, which is also known by the name “Tonejet”, is a function only of the performance of the computer that actuates the print head. For example, print heads from 1.7 to 6.8 inch print width, corresponding to a 256 Bit control or a 1024 Bit control, can thereby be produced. Using this print head, it is possible to print a two-dimensional impression with a sufficiently large surface area only in a single axial direction by relative motion between the surface to be printed and the print head.